STIFF measures to combat loan sharks and their assistants are set to be introduced when Parliament sits on Monday.

These are to be spelt out in amendments to the Moneylenders Act, with an eye on penetrating loan shark syndicates to stop their unrelenting and ruthless methods in getting borrowers to pay up.

This loan shark problem was raised in Parliament in August, when MPs like Madam Cynthia Phua (Aljunied GRC) noted a rise in their terrorising ways.

She said harassment incidents in her ward had risen from one every four months to one every fortnight.

Nationally, too, the figures have gone up. In the first half of this year, the number of loan sharking and harassment reports went up to 9,395, from 4,759 in the same period last year.

Senior Minister of State (Law and Home Affairs) Ho Peng Kee told Parliament then that advances in communications technology and money-transfer methods had led to loan shark syndicates becoming larger and more sophisticated.